


What If I Can't?

by pastelastronaut (orphan_account)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Police, I'm posting this on multiple websites, M/M, enemies to friends to crush, prostitution is mentioned in a few chapters but isnt that big of a deal, someone might die so I added that warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-17
Updated: 2016-08-13
Packaged: 2018-07-24 14:54:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7512511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/pastelastronaut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Nico di Angelo was hired to kill Leo Valdez after obtaining information from his boss, he finds that this task might be harder than he originally thought. Leo was not stupid. He knew people were after him. He couldn't trust Nico, no matter how much he wanted to. Despite his situation, Nico starts to think maybe he can't kill him. Will Nico be able to fulfill his task at hand?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Nico was fairly surprised when his half-sister Hazel came to tell him their father had a task for him. Their father, "Hades" as people liked to call him, ran an illegal prostitution business. People involved with the business, and even people outside of it, feared him. They knew that if you didn't follow his orders or did anything to upset him, you'd be dead within the next forty-eight hours. That was almost always guaranteed, depending on the situation.

Nico's father never let him have any tasks on his own, not even the extremely simple and easy ones. He always gave him to his sister Hazel, or Bianca, when she was alive. Nico didn't think it was fair, as his father never trusted Hazel, although he wasn't completely sure what his father thought of him. Nico was fairly certain his father just didn't like him. His father's reasoning never made any sense to him, but he'd never say that out loud.

When Nico got to the main meeting area in the building, his father was sitting at the head of the table, along with his most trusted employees, as well as some of his other workers. They never really had meetings like this, where Nico was invited, unless it was something important. And Nico was getting a task. He was getting his own task. That was something unheard of. 

'Hades' motioned for Nico and Hazel to take a seat so that he could continue the already started meeting. 

"Okay now that both Nico and Hazel are here, let's discuss our current situation. For a while now we have had reports of the police moving in on us, but we have been managing to stay out of their reach. This morning, however we were tipped off that the police have been able to gather enough information on our business here to potentially take us down soon. The police are also planning to hire an undercover officer. The officer's name is Leo Valdez. He's twenty two and a Mexican-American." Nico's father paused before continuing. "In order to stop him, I decided we will be sending in my son, Nico, to kill him for us. Before he does that though, he needs to gather certain information from him. Until he kills him, they will be roommates, so it is less suspicious when he asks questions. I know it is a dangerous situation, keeping enemies within the same building, but Nico needs a chance to prove himself."

"Father," Nico began. "May I ask why I have to actually stay with him? I could just as easily get the information from him any other way."

One of their senior employees, Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, spoke next. "Sir, I do agree with both you and your son here, but I don't see why we can't do something else? I get it will be dangerous either way, but I don't think that is the best plan of action.

Hades sighed. "I have considered other options but this is the one I feel comfortable sending my son into." He looked around at the other employees sitting around the table. "Any more objections?" When no one responded he continued. "Good. I have a list of information for Nico to gather." He quickly passed an envelope to Nico. "And that is it. You are all dismissed. Anyone who has any questions can come see me."

Nico quickly took the opportunity to leave and ran out of the room, the envelope clutched tightly in his hand. 

"Nico!" His sister Hazel caught up to him, panting slightly, worry and concern lacing her face. "Will you be okay doing this?"

Nico scoffed, yet a small amount of fear crept into his voice. "Yeah, I'll be fine, don't worry about me..." He laughed softly to himself. "I should probably get going...I need to review this, and get ready for this...I'm sorry, I have to go."

"Nico," Hazel started speaking again quickly as she grabbed his wrist. "Don't put too much thought into it. It's better going in without much planning in advance. Stuff can get mixed up and not go as you had planned." She looked at him for a second, then turned and walked away. 

Nico sighed and continued to his room. Everyone who worked here, who were the business people at least, had rooms. They were all on the top two floors, away from the prostitutes who were kept in the two basement levels. The other floors all had different, varying purposes. They decided to do this a few years back when the police had started catching on to them.

Nico didn't mind it, as it had gotten rid of the early morning and late night commutes back and forth to their headquarters. But if you had to be somewhere within the headquarters at a specific time, you really had no excuse to be late. 

He slowly opened the door to his room and stepped inside, shutting the door behind him. Nico wasn't sure how he felt now. Was it excitement? Fear? Worry? A jumble of many emotions? It wasn't really identifiable. He sat down on his bed, and quickly opened the envelope to go over it's contents. It basically consisted of some background information on Leo Valdez, and some information Hades would like to acquire.

Nico sighed, knowing it would all start tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay that was definitely an abrupt way to end this chapter but I honestly could not drag it on any longer than I already was. This is also fairly short compared to stuff I normally write. I would have had this out sooner but I really don't have motivation to write, so I'm forcing myself to write stuff, and I wrote the ending first, so I kinda had to base everything around that moment. Once again I'm sorry if this is bad, but I'm trying, and that's what matters to me. I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> \- Al


	2. Chapter 2

Today was the day, and Nico was standing outside of Leo Valdez's apartment. He just had to knock, so he did. Delaying it wouldn't help anything. It would probably just make it worse, honestly.

Within a minute the door was opened to reveal a slightly short and extremely skinny Latino boy. According to Nico's father, Hades, the boy was twenty three, but he looked so much younger.

Leo smiled widely at him, his curly chocolate brown mop of hair falling in his eyes. Nico noticed a small hint of surprise in those deep brown eyes of his, and decided to ignore it.

"So you must be Nico di Angelo!" Leo practically smiled out the words, and Nico couldn't help but smile slightly back. He hated smiling, to be honest. He always thought he had a weird smile.

"And you're Leo Valdez, yes?" Nico asked the obvious question, and mentally face palmed himself. He blushed slightly at that, which made him both annoyed and impatient with himself at the same time.

"Yes, of course I am! What did you expect?" Leo laughed slightly, his nose scrunching up while doing so. Leo definitely seemed like the person who was always just so... Smiley. And Nico could tell that just by being in his presence for about a minute. Leo gave off that happy feeling where you can't help but just smile as well. Nico wasn't sure if it was all genuine, but he definitely knew Leo loved to smile, genuine or not.

They stood there in silence for a few moments after that, both trying not to be too obvious about staring at each other. Leo laughed again after a moment, scratching the back of his head. He hesitated before he stepped to the side, motioning for Nico to walk through the door. "Why don't you come in?"

Nico nodded, grabbed his suitcase, which held some of his things, and walked through the door. He turned to face Leo, who shut the door behind him.

"Ah, um," Leo laughed again, this time nervously. "I guess I'll show you to your room, and let you unpack or whatever. Then maybe we can get to know each other a little better..." Leo started walking down a hallway, motioning for Nico to follow. "The man on the phone, I assume you had someone else call for you, father maybe? Although he doesn't have the same accent as you...He didn't tell me too much about you, other than what I needed to know." Leo turned around to face Nico once they got to the third door down the hall, still smiling, and opened it behind him. He walked in, still facing Nico, and stepped out of the way, letting Nico pass through the door.

"Well, this is your room, I guess. I'll just let you get settled in now. He turned and walked out of the room, softly shutting the door behind him.

Nico could hear his nervous laughter as he walked away. He set down his suitcase on a bed, in the corner of the room.

His new room, while he was staying here, wasn't all that bad. It wasn't small, but it wasn't large either. The bed was a full sized bed, and already had bedding on it. The walls were painted an odd shade of blue, which Nico found odd. The floors were laminated to look like dark mahogany wood. There were other pieces of furniture, such as a dresser, and nightstand, as well as a desk and chair.

Overall, it wasn't bad at all. It was actually pretty decent.

Nico really didn't feel like doing much unpacking, so he went back out into the living area of the apartment.

Leo had been sitting on a barstool next to the kitchen counter, but stood up when Nico entered the room.

"So, you're settled in alright?" Leo asked, smiling with his hand on the back of his neck.

Nico nodded. "Yeah, I guess." He walked over to Leo and sat on another barstool facing him, causing Leo to awkwardly sit down again.

The two sat there in uncomfortable silence for a while, neither of them wanting to start the conversation. Leo was still smiling while Nico was...not.

Eventually Leo laughed awkwardly, self-consciously twirling his hair around his finger. Something about Nico made him feel...nervous. He didn't speak much, from what Leo saw, wore mostly black, besides his brown aviator jacket, and seemed to have this aura in which made him seem unapproachable. Yet something about him also made Leo want to talk to him, and always try and smile genuinely, even though they had just met. It was weird to Leo, though he supposed he was like that with anyone and everyone. "Should we try to get and know each other, then?"

Nico nodded after a second. "Sure." Was all he replied.

So Nico wanted Leo to start off. But with what? Asking questions, talking about himself? Leo wasn't completely sure, but he decided his best bet was to ask questions about Nico so he didn't seem full of himself.

"So, you're twenty-one, right?" Leo asked after a moment. He already knew this, but decided he would just ask anything. And besides, it wouldn't hurt anyone to ask the obvious.

Nico nodded in response. That was all, nothing else. This was going to be a long night if this was how he was going to act.

Leo nodded and thought of more questions to get to know his new roommate.

"Where are you from? You sound like you could be Italian but at the same time you also sound like you're all American. I'm just wondering sorry if I'm being rude." The words came out of Leo's mouth so fast that Nico had to take a moment to slowly go back over them.

After a moment of staring at Leo quizzically, he responded. "My mother was born and raised in Italy. She moved here as an adult and had me and my sister with my father. We were raised by her until she died. Although growing up in America, I guess I did pick up some of my mother's accent."

Leo was shocked. Not at his answer, no. His answer wasn't actually shocking at all, to be honest. It was the most he had heard Nico say so far, even if it was said in a toneless 'I-couldn't-care-less' voice. He liked hearing Nico talk a lot. Even with his toneless voice, it still sounded so sing-song. Leo wondered what it would sound like if he got really excited over something. Angry? Upset? Would it still sound as if it flowed perfectly like river water? Leo wanted to find out.

"So, what do you do as a job?" It was a simple question. Leo hoped Nico liked his job. Many people didn't. Leo loved his job. He enjoyed helping people and making sure everything was set right. He didn't like seeing other people upset. After his mother's death he joined the police force in hopes to find closure, which he did not find. But he found comfort in knowing he was providing closure for others.

"I work for my father. He's a businessman, I do paperwork for him. I'm basically a secretary..." Nico shrugged, trailing off in that same toneless voice. It wasn't exactly a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth either.

"You don't like your job then, I assume?"

Nico once again shrugged and responded after a moment. "Not really, I suppose. I'd rather be working with art or something..." Nico had never really shared that with anyone besides his sisters Bianca and Hazel. It felt weird to be telling it to a man he just met, but it wasn't like Leo could go off and tell everyone they knew, so Nico decided it was fine and that he could tell him.

"You like art? That's cool. I like art too, I guess. Although I was never really that good I guess. But I can draw some sick stick figures though." Leo laughed and winked obnoxiously, letting his usual humour come through.

Nico cracked a small smile at that, and laughed slightly, but it was over within seconds. He masked it by rolling his eyes. "Wow, stick figures are so complicated. I can't believe you haven't been in an art museum yet!" He exaggerated his sentences with large hand gestures to go with it. Italian stereotype, I guess.

Nico, although stopped smiling, betrayed his cover up with his voice. It held humour and sarcasm there now. It still seemed sing-song, though. It wasn't exactly what Leo wanted to hear in his voice but it was something, causing Leo to smile even more.

"I'll have you know I was in my first grade art museum with my artwork of stick figures on a flying pirate ship. I got last place but I still think I did okay for a drawing of my favourite vacation." Leo laughed at his own joke, and saw Nico stifling some laughter.

"How the hell did you think a flying pirate ship was real? Let alone think of it as 'your favourite vacation'?" Nico asked, a glint in his eye.

"Aye, but I'm a pirate at heart, matey!" Leo exaggerated with a horrendous pirate accent.

Nico rolled his eyes. "If you were a pirate then I'd be dead. Dreams don't come true, mate." He said the last sentence with a slight accent, but nothing extremely noticeable.

The two continued their fling of questions and snarky retorts back and forth to each other. Both of them were so caught up they forgot about dinner and even strayed deep into the night.

Needless to say, the two, although complete opposites, got along fairly well, despite their situation. Although that is still unknown to Leo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was actually going to make this longer but I'm currently writing this at 3 AM and anything longer will probably be really bad and drag it out to a point where you guys will have already left.
> 
> I also feel like Leo and Nico were a bit out of character here but Leo is a person to joke a lot and we see some of Nico's sarcasm in Heroes Of Olympus. Either way, I think they're okay?
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
> 
> (I'm posting this a few days early on here.)
> 
> \- Al


	3. Chapter 3

Leo liked Nico. Not in a romantic way, but in a friendly way. Nico was cool. Although he was a little quiet and slightly inexpressive. He also cursed quite a bit, and used a lot of sarcasm and smart remarks. In fact, there were a lot of things that were considered bad about Nico, but Leo ignored them. He could tell Nico was probably a nice person, and raised to show no emotions. Or maybe something had greatly affected him? He knew Nico's mother died, but Leo still wasn't completely sure, and wanted to find out.

But even at that, there was something there that didn't seem quite right about him. He came almost out of nowhere. Leo did put an ad in the newspaper, and online, for a roommate, so that was to be expected.

But after Nico's father called, he had gotten one of his coworkers to look into him, and there was no record of a Nico di Angelo that completely matched the Nico who was currently staying with him, besides a birth certificate that may have been his. It wasn't certain, though.

Leo knew he shouldn't have accepted Nico as his roommate. It wasn't even him who called! Was Nico even really Nico? He wanted to trust Nico, he really did, and he felt as if he did trust Nico. But still, he had doubts, and so did his coworkers.

In fact, ever since he had gotten the phone call from Nico's father, his coworkers had started fussing over it.

He was at work when he got the call, and his partner, Pollux, was sitting at the desk next to his.

Pollux looked over at him after the call ended. "Who was that?"

Leo shrugged carelessly. "I got a call for my roommate ad. A boy named Nico, a few years younger than me. I don't think it was him who called though. The voice on the phone sounded too old to be him."

Pollux immediately had looked concerned. "Are you going to accept it? I wouldn't. If it wasn't him who called you can't trust them."

Leo had shrugged once again. "I might. It has been the only answer so far. I'm thinking about it."

So a few days later, he had accepted Nico di Angelo to be his roommate, after Pollux had done background on him.

Nothing solid.

Pollux had always been a bit worrisome ever since his brother had been kidnapped by that prostitution rink they were now focusing on.

Leo didn't mind. It was always good to be careful.

The day after Nico had officially moved in, his coworkers immediately asked about him, although most of the questions came from Pollux.

"Is Nico like what the man on the phone said he would be like?" Pollux asked almost immediately after Leo sat down at his desk.

"Mostly. He's twenty one, has a slight Italian accent, and dresses in mostly black." Leo began pulling it some paperwork he needed to complete.

"Ah, but that sounds like he could be in the Mafia or something! Are you sure you trust that?" Pollux's voice grew anxious.

Leo laughed and flashed a smile at Pollux. "I'm pretty sure the Mafia doesn't exist around here. And besides, he doesn't really seem that type."

Pollux shot him a weird look. "You seem so sure of this. Do you even know what he does for a living?"

Leo have a halfhearted shrug and a sigh to go with it. "He said he's a secretary. Seems reasonable enough."

"A secretary? A punk...? Emo...? Goth...? Secretary? That doesn't seem right." Pollux shook his head lightly.

Leo smiled again. "He really isn't any of those things either... I think, at least. I just think that's how he dresses."

Pollux sighed. "You and him are both weird.

At that, Leo laughed again. "I can't help but disagree that I'm weird. But I can't disagree that in fact, Nico is kinda weird."

Pollux rolled his eyes. "You're an idiot."

Leo smiled even brighter. "So I've been told. But I still disagree."

But really, Pollux did have a point to all of his worries. What if Nico was lying? What if Nico was a bad person? What if Leo was putting his trust in the wrong person?

Leo started worrying about it after Pollux stopped annoying him about it. Nico seemed like a nice person...? Yes he was a bit...off in some ways, but he was still a person, and everyone is a bit off in some way.

Leo probably had a problem where he trusted people too much. But he also felt as if he trusted too little. It was conflicting.

He was sure he trusted Nico. He wanted to trust Nico. But could he? Could he really? After thinking about it, yes. He could probably trust Nico. He was going to trust Nico.

He did trust Nico. He wasn't sure why, but he did. Although a part of him still warned him to be careful around Nico. He was still off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this was a really short and kinda badly-written chapter. I honestly wasn't sure what to do for this chapter. I didn't want to do a random scene between the two, and I wanted to introduce the people Leo works with, even if it was really only one person.
> 
> Another note, I may make this story longer than I originally intended, because I have some stuff I need to fit in here, and can not really do that with how I currently have it planned. We'll see.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
> 
> \- Al


	4. Chapter 4

Both Leo and Nico were not completely sure why they even bothered trying to get along. Nico just assumed it was because he himself had to do what his father asked, and this was all the buildup. Leo, on the other hand, just really didn't want this to be an awkward situation for either of them. Both were pretty much right, in their own way.

Currently, the two were not really doing anything important. It was around eight at night, and they had really been sitting I'm silence for the past few hours, besides a few failed attempts at conversation. Would these two ever get along? Probably not. It was unlikely.

Even at that, they both tried.

After quite a while of silence, besides the audio coming from the television, Nico decided to actually engage in a conversation. Maybe he could find out some of what is father wanted to know! But it was a long-shot. They had only known each other for a few days so far. It wasn't like Leo would tell him anything too important.

"So, you work for the police, right?" Nico asked hesitantly, and Leo nodded in response. Nico took that as a sign to continue. Hopefully this wouldn't be too suspicious...? "Has there been anything new on the kidnapping from a few months back? I haven't heard anything on the news about them lately..."

That was true, at least. The news channels had stopped talking about them after a few weeks. Of course, his father was behind them, so Nico thought that this was worth a try. He could at least see if the police knew who was behind it, but maybe not. Who knows?

Leo shrugged slightly. "Not really. We've had a few leads, nothing solid. We hope that they are still okay, and trust me, we are still looking into it, mind you. I'm actually one of the officers on the case. This is also one of my first major cases. Well, I guess it's major..."

Nico nodded. "Well at least there have been no one who has showed up dead. So they have to be alive, right?"

Leo looked at him weirdly. "That is a good assumption, why are you just a secretary? You seem like the type of person to get into law. Hmm... Anyways, yeah. They should be alive, I like to hope so, at least. It's good to stay positive."

It took Nico a moment to respond. "Yeah... Makes sense. It probably keeps you from giving up. Although, the law itself, and the fact that it is your job, probably motivates you enough."

"Yeah, that's true too. A lot of things make us want to get it done. For me, it's just my job, and I care about it. For others, it may be personal." Leo sighed lightly. "It's different for everyone, I think, at least."

Nico nodded, not responding.

~

Reyna sat down in front of Hades. "Sir, are you still sure that Nico will do a good job? He wasn't even given any directions on this. He could get himself killed? Why didn't you let Hazel do this, or Thalia? Wouldn't they make more sense?"

Hades sighed. "Of course you have doubts. Trust me, Ramírez-Arellano, I have this planned. Nico was the one I wanted to do this. And besides, he does need to prove himself. I already know he can do this."

"I don't doubt that, but I'm worried. We never gave him any warning and we have never told him what he can and can not do. I just think this is sudden. What happens is we get caught? What will happen to Hazel? She's technically not old enough to live on her own." Reyna seemed to look frantic, which she probably was. Sure, she was normally calm and collected, but Nico was one of her best friends. Of course she was worried.

"You are worried over nothing. Everything will work out. Now please, go try to get something important done." Hades waved her off.

She looked back at him. "But I-"

Hades cut her off, his tone seeming almost stressed out. "Please leave. Everything will work." He pushed her out the door and shut it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay wow this is an extremely short chapter. I was considering dragging it on for another scene or two but I'll save those for next chapter.
> 
> Anyways, it's been a while, and I'm sorry. I really have no excuses.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this! Chapter five should hopefully be out within a week, although I may try to get a part two of that Blitzstone thing out, along with the Scorbus fic. So maybe two weeks. We'll see.
> 
> I'm going to try to finish this fic by the end of the year. I think I can do it.
> 
> Have a nice day/night/morning/etc!
> 
> \- Al


End file.
